TAARII NEWSLETTER the American Academic Research Institute in Iraq

FALL 2007 PAGE 1 TAARII NEWSLETTER The American Academic Research Institute in Iraq ISSUE NO. 2-2 FALL 2007 © TAARII 1950s BAGHDAD — MODERN AND INTERNATIONAL MINA MAREFAT, Design Research and Catholic University Baghdad is an international capital of ever increasing importance and influence and headquarters of the Council of the Baghdad Pact. It is Iraq’s shop window to the world, and many will judge the country by what they see in its capital, both of the layout of the town and its amenities, and of the way in which its inhabitants live, and the provision that is made for their welfare in the form of good housing and social facilities.1 This 1956 observation by British architects and town plan- ners Minoprio, Spencely, and P. W. Macfarlane was in har- mony with the outlook Iraq’s Development Board brought to the capital city in the 1950s.2 While an ambitious program to rebuild Baghdad was not among its officially stated missions, the Development Board collectively and through its individual members introduced new ideas to reshape the city’s architecture.3 At the time, the young Middle Eastern nation was capti- vated by progress and battling for the legitimacy of a “modern” identity. The Iraqis wanted Baghdad to become the symbol and showcase for both (figure 1.1). Starting in 1955, the Board qui- etly approached several world famous architects, inviting them to participate in selected building projects for the capital city.4 Based on original research started many years ago, this essay examines some of the underpinnings of that building strategy as it took shape amid the ideas and visions, players and politics Figure 1.1. Baghdad City Center, View of Southgate Square (circa 1960). This Was the Location of the City’s Main Bus Terminal for Both Urban and Regional Public Transport (Published in Iraq Bulletin 1960) of 1950s Iraq in what was to be a unique moment of East-West exchange.5 Between 1936 and 1939, the first master plan had introduced linear street patterns with the north-south Rashid Street, paral- lel to the river, forming the principal avenue for the city’s retail and business locations. The next record of urban planning is from 1954, when the Development Board commissioned the Minoprio, Spencely, and Macfarlane master plan. The firm was to study the four older parts of the city — Rusafa, Adhamiya, Karkh, and Kadhimain — to deal specifically with the main road system “including the principal existing roads and bridges and any new major roads or bridges considered necessary.”6 They also were charged to recommend land use, specifying areas for housing, industry, commerce, open space, and to iden- tify the “New Buildings such as Schools, Shops, Clinics, or Car Parks.”7 The master plan completed in 1956 (figure 1.2) Figure 1.2. “The Master Plan for Baghdad, 1956” by Minoprio, Spen- cely, and P. W. Macfarlane, Architects and Town Planning Consul- presented specific recommendations for a university, a ma- tants, London. Markings on This Map Are By Frank Lloyd Wright jor sports center, and a civic center defined as a grouping “to (Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation) accommodate headquarter buildings of various Government PAGE 2 TAARII NEWSLETTER ports. “Iraq’s unique agency,” as Time magazine called it, had built, started, or planned sixteen dams, two barrages to catch flood waters, numerous drainage ditches and canals, oil refiner- ies, textile plants, and sugar mills between 1950 and 1957. By the end of the first phase, hospitals, schools, factories, the royal palace, the house of parliament, and an Iraqi national museum were also under construction. The second five-year program (1955–59) saw a budget explosion from 0.3 to more than 1.4 billion dollars based on increased oil revenue.12 By the middle of the decade, the Development Board be- Figure 1.3. Members of the Development Board, including Dr. Dhia Jafar, Minister of Development (left), and Prime Minister Nuri as- Said (center). See Figures 1.10–11 for Names and Portraits of All Board Members in 1957 (Development Week, 1957, pp. 8–9) Departments.”8 These were among the buildings designated for commissions to Western architects, most notably Walter Gropius, Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright, Gio Ponti, and Figure 1.4. Sketch of the Baghdad Medical Center, a Ten Floor Build- ing Containing a 950-bed Hospital, with Ancillary Installations and Alvar Aalto, each of whom easily ranked among his respective 9 Medical, Dental, and Veterinary Colleges, Estimated to Cost 3 Mil- country’s and the world’s best known architects. lion Iraqi Dinars. The board meant to mitigate the lack of hospitals, The Development Board was created by Iraq’s strongman which, it pointed out, “resulted on several occasions in a catastrophe” and fourteen-time Prime Minister, Nuri as-Said, when in 1950 (Second Development Week, 1956, p. 30) he forged an agreement with the British-American owned Iraq Petroleum Company to share half the oil profits with Iraq. Fi- nancing projects with seventy percent of the nation’s new oil revenue (figure 1.3) its initial program (1951–56) targeted such infrastructure basics as irrigation, flood control, swamp drainage, low cost housing, and improvement of village and rural conditions, then moved into land reclamation, agriculture, and upgrading existing areas, including grants of state land to small farmers.10 By 1955, the Board extended its focus to trans- portation, intending to “construct a modern communication system for linking the various parts of the country to each other.”11 Funds were allocated to roads, bridges, airfields, railways, and Figure 1.5. Modern Primary School Built Under the Development Board Programs, One of “75 constructed according to the most up-to- date designs ... we can easily foresee the effects of these buildings on learning and culture” (Second Development Week, 1956, p. 26) gan to publicize its successes. The main vehicle was a trio of week-long events, in March of 1956, 1957, and 1958.13 Each of these Development Week events was both a major international publicity opportunity and a celebratory way to keep the Iraqi people up to date on progress, to mark achievements, and unveil future plans. Publications, news articles, and speeches apprised Iraqis of the scope of ambitions and what Develop- ment Board projects would mean for the people of Iraq. Dr. Dhia Jafar, Minister of Development, declared, “We are proud to say that the implementation of these major projects is being carried out within the financial capabilities of Iraq.”14 Nuri as-Said praised the “efforts in the service of our nation and the Figure 1.6. The New Iraqi Parliament Building, under Construction in prosperity of our country … to lead our countrymen to glory 1957 and prosperity,” with paeans to the government’s posture of FALL 2007 PAGE 3 lications by the Board, never clearly brought into focus as an element of the strategy of national advancement. Images of a future Baghdad Medical Center (figure 1.4) and the Kharkh Hospital in Baghdad, a new primary school (figure 1.5), a new Parliament building, and a Mosul educational unit and bitumen refinery appeared in a central color spread of the Second Devel- opment Week booklet. Throughout the publication, images of primary schools and housing projects were printed along with the predominating pictures of dams and bridges. As to building projects that would soon be commissioned to major master builders of modern architecture from around the world, there is no specific mention of this as a program or strategy in official Development Board pamphlets.20 Color plates included images of housing projects and examples of hotels, rest houses, and in- dustrial buildings but no representations of the public buildings reserved for renowned architects. Under the category of “build- Figure 1.7. Sketch of the Development Board Office Building Pub- ings” was an interesting, symbolically-tinged reference to one lished in the 1957 Development Week Pamphlet. The Constructed project, the Parliament building: Building of Italian Architect Gio Ponti Resembled his Well-known The Development Board has given much attention to health Pirelli Building in Milan establishments and to educational and public buildings … A number of these buildings have already been constructed … humble service: This number includes government buildings such as the Par- The gold which is being produced from under the earth is liament, which is the most important building constructed so your property. It is from the people to the people. This is far by the Development Board. It was designed according what the Government believe in, hold fast to, and work hard to the latest architectural style, and will cost ID. 2,750,000 to achieve … [W]e have carried out our development pro- ($7,700,000) so as to render it compatible with the glory of gramme most eagerly and faithfully.15 the country.21 (figure 1.6) Iraqi leaders were proud of and vocal about their progress. A number of hospitals and their building budgets were also Summarizing achievements, the new Minister of Development listed; while most had been assigned to specific architects, the in 1958 grandly announced: Board felt it sufficient to note that the “responsibility for plan- [W]e do feel a justifiable pride in what has been accom- ning these hospitals is entrusted to Consulting Engineers of in- plished and is being accomplished … The participation and ternational repute who are also entrusted with other important 22 support of all the citizens of our beloved country is neces- hospitals.” sary for the fulfillment of the objectives which have been When the projects commissioned to Westerners were men- established. All can contribute to the success of this great tioned in official publications, it was usually as miscellany.

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